見塔掃塔 Seeing A Pagoda I Sweep It
三藏道：「我欲面君倒換關文，奈何這眾僧之事不得明白，難以對君奏言。我當時離了長安，在法門寺裡立願：上西方逢廟燒香，遇寺拜佛，見塔掃塔。今日至此，遇有受屈僧人，乃因寶塔之累。你與我辦一把新笤帚，待我沐浴了，上去掃掃，即看這污穢之事何如，不放光之故何如，訪著端的，方好面君奏言，解救他們這苦難也。」三藏道：「我欲面君倒换关文，奈何这众僧之事不得明白，难以对君奏言。我当时离了长安，在法门寺里立愿：上西方逢庙烧香，遇寺拜佛，见塔扫塔。今日至此，遇有受屈僧人，乃因宝塔之累。你与我办一把新笤帚，待我沐浴了，上去扫扫，即看这污秽之事何如，不放光之故何如，访着端的，方好面君奏言，解救他们这苦难也。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, "I mean to have audience of the king and get our travel document exchanged; but this business of the monks cannot be made clear, and it is hard to lay before him.
倒換關文 is the fixed business of the pilgrimage: at every kingdom the travel document has to be handed over and re-sealed, and 倒 takes dào, the exchanging reading. 不得明白 is 不得 followed by a verb, the same shape as 不得進洞, so its 得 is the light linking one — nothing is obtained here, the clarity simply fails to arrive. Set it beside 辨得 four segments back, which is a real attainment and takes the full dé.
"When I set out from Chang'an I made a vow in the Temple of the Dharma Gate: that going west I would burn incense at every shrine I came to, worship the Buddha at every temple I met, and sweep every pagoda I saw.
Here is the vow the whole chapter runs on — and Tripitaka is misquoting himself. He made it at 法門寺, the Temple of the Dharma Gate, on his second day out of Chang'an, and the wording there was 路中逢廟燒香，遇佛拜佛，遇塔掃塔. Two of the three clauses have drifted since: 遇佛拜佛 has become 遇寺拜佛, and 遇塔掃塔 has become 見塔掃塔, which is the form the chapter title uses. 長安 takes cháng, the capital, not zhǎng.
"Today I have come here and met monks suffering a wrong, and it is the pagoda that has drawn it down on them.
累 takes lèi, the 連累 sense of dragging somebody else into your own trouble. 康熙 糸部五畫 carries three readings: 力追切, 音欙, for binding; 力委切, 音壘, for heaping up; and 良僞切 or 力僞切, 纍去聲, glossed 緣坐也, to be caught up in another's liability, with 《書》·旅獒 終累大德 and 《左傳》 無累後人 behind it. It is that third one, in the falling tone, that carries this sense. The pagoda is the actor in the sentence: it is what these men are suffering on account of.
"Get me a new broom. When I have bathed I shall go up and sweep, and see how this business of the fouling stands, and why the light is not given off. Once I have found out the truth of it, I can properly lay it before the king and deliver them out of this calamity."
苦難 takes nàn, the calamity reading — 康熙字典 gives it at 奴案切, glossed 患也, and cites 《禮》·曲禮, 臨難毋苟免. The three other 難 in this stretch are all the nán of difficulty. 訪著 is the got-there-in-the-end shape and takes zháo. Both 不 lift to bú before falling tones.
The vow is the hinge of the chapter, and the novel has been holding it in reserve for forty-nine chapters. Tripitaka undertook at the Temple of the Dharma Gate, on his second day out of Chang'an, to burn incense at every shrine, worship at every temple and sweep every pagoda he came to. It has not been mentioned since — and here is a pagoda that needs sweeping.
The misquotation is the interesting part. He gets one clause right and alters the other two, and the alteration to the third — from meeting a pagoda to seeing one — is the exact wording of this chapter's title. Whether the novel intends the slip or has simply drifted, the vow arrives in the shape the chapter needs.
What he actually proposes is an investigation. Sweep the pagoda, look at the fouling, find out why the light stopped, and only then go to the king: 訪著端的，方好面君奏言, once the truth of it has been found out, then it will be proper to speak. It is the first time in the chapter that anybody has proposed to go and look, and the instrument that gets him up the stairs is a religious vow.